Man surrenders in hit-and-run killing TSU law student

By Robert Stanton |
October 19, 2011
| Updated: October 20, 2011 7:38pm

KAREN WARREN : CHRONICLE
TRIBUTES: Eva Anassi writes a note on a poster board memorial for TSU law school student Halley Catherine Shaw, who was killed Tuesday night by a driver who fled the scene.

Houston Police Department officials have confirmed that the student killed in an auto accident last night was 27 year-old Halley Catherine Shaw. TSU spokesperson Eva Pickens has confirmed that Ms. Shaw was a second year law student at Texas Southern University's Thurgood Marshall School of Law.

Photo By Karen Warren

A TSU student writes a note on a poster board memorial for a (as yet unidentified) TSU student, Oct. 19, 2011, who died last night in a hit and run accident at Cleburne and Dowling Street. Police are looking for a man after he drove away from officers, ran a red light and slammed into a car, leaving the 27-year-old woman dead and two other people injured just south of downtown late Tuesday night, about 11:20 p.m., according to the Houston Department Police. ( Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle )

Photo By Karen Warren

Fellow TSU students write notes on a poster board memorial and leave flowers for a TSU student, Oct. 19, 2011, who died last night in a hit and run accident at Cleburne and Dowling Street. Police are looking for a man after he drove away from officers, ran a red light and slammed into a car, leaving the 27-year-old woman dead and two other people injured just south of downtown late Tuesday night, about 11:20 p.m., according to the Houston Department Police. ( Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle )

Photo By Karen Warren

Shakeatha Davis, left, and Eva Anassi, right, write a note on a poster board memorial for a TSU student, Oct. 19, 2011, who died last night in a hit and run accident at Cleburne and Dowling Street. Police are looking for a man after he drove away from officers, ran a red light and slammed into a car, leaving the 27-year-old woman dead and two other people injured just south of downtown late Tuesday night, about 11:20 p.m., according to the Houston Department Police. ( Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle )

A man who may be connected to a deadly hit-and-run collision that killed a law student earlier this week surrendered to police Wednesday, officials said.

The man, whose name has not been released, walked into the Harris County Constable's Office Precinct 6 after media reports circulated that police were searching for the driver in the fatal wreck, officials said.

The constable's office turned the man over to the Houston Police Department. HPD investigators spoke with the man and he was taken to an HPD facility. No charges have been filed, officials said.

A few steps away from the scene of a fatal crash lie flowers and a poster with a picture of a smiling Shaw. And that's how her classmates best remember her.

"She was a sweetheart and it's sad, really sad," said Whitney Salter, a second-year law student. "It makes you well up, I mean you're here one day and you're gone the next."

Shaw, 27, died late Tuesday night when a car trying to evade police ran a red light and struck the car she was in, authorities said. Police are searching for the driver, who fled on foot after the crash.

Minutes before the crash, police were investigating a suspicious car at 3902 Hamilton near Isabella, south of downtown Houston.

Patrol officers spotted two men sitting in a Buick LeSabre and asked them to get out of the car, police said. The passenger complied and was detained, but the driver sped away.

The driver - eastbound on Cleburne - ran a red light and struck a Nissan Altima about 11:20 p.m., killing Shaw and injuring two others in the vehicle. The driver and another passenger were taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital.

One of the occupants, a woman also in her second year at law school, was in critical condition Wednesday, TSU spokeswoman Eva Pickens said. The other graduated from the law school last year. Police said his injuries were not life-threatening.

Shaw, a second-year student, was from Dallas.

On Wednesday, her classmates stopped by the site of the crash, where a memorial was erected.

Andre Evans, a third-year law student at the school, remembers Shaw as being a fun person and having many friends.

Anyone with information about the case is urged to call the HPD Hit and Run Unit at 713 247-4065 or Crime Stoppers at 713 222-TIPS (8477).